Topic: A Question on When and When Not to Prescribe ? Posted: 11 Nov. 08 at 14:41

I have a question for a change! And so, I'll just sit down, shut up, and listen with few long-winded yappings on this one. Maybe I've missed it somewhere. It overlaps with the philosophical.

My question for practicing homeopaths is this:

We know that mental rubrics -- the loves, hates, and especially the peculiar symptoms -- help zero in on a remedy. We seek to "balance" man and make his symptoms "harmonious" and all that. This homeostasis concept tightly overlaps with philosophies of the Orient's "zero state"; That ever erased away eccentricity of the human spirit, and its various symptoms.

I, for one, find myself half-hearted in the approach to true and total cure with homeopathy or any other system; for there are "abnormal" streaks to me and in others that I don't want to medicate away.

There is a point where the underlying constitution, symptoms, and pathology of the individual becomes too much suffering and should be dosed. But, then again, suffering is also a part of life. Some sufferings -- such as the physical -- should be usually attacked by the physician. Other times, it is best to leave things be and for nature to take its course. And so, by extension, I am always wondering where that exists in the mental generals.

At what point do we tell Rembrandt that he needs our remedies to make him less "anti-social"? Where do we draw the line at telling men like General Patton they should be less "mean-spirited", "egotistical", and "with delusions of grandeur"? How do we medicate these unruly little boys that the world's head shrinks are prone to dosing away into oblivion on things like Ritalin when all they are is "hyperactive", "attention deficit disorder" cases exactly like Einstein? How do we prescribe for clairvoyant and other crazy streaks of men like Tesla? Or Hahnemann himself as the "kook" he was?!

These people are all plain fruity tooty!!! And they suffer various crosses to bear -- mental and physical -- from just living in our world. And so where do we draw the prescription line? I ask because I don't really know, not for the sake of debate, and I'm truly curious to see what others have to input on the matter.

There's an old saying something like: if a man be a failure at the radical, they call him a kook, mad, insane, delusional, a fool, etc. If he succeeds in pulling off radical change in the world, they call him a genius, a brilliant dreamer, and just an eccentric.

Point being: eccentricity is a symptom and suffering that is absolutely out of harmony, deranged in Vital Force at times, taxing of the body and mind, and certainly unhealthy. They say, "Well, just be balanced. Seek to be well-rounded. Balance, my son. Balance! Be well!!" and yet it is in the imbalanced, highly volatile states that human beings often make the most agile and radical changes in history. So, how shall I prescribe for some delusional kook ever coming to my office with a long list of mental generals and sufferings, and yet with all that being part of the pain that makes him a great musician, or artist, or scientist? If I take that away from him or smoothen out the rough edges and make him better conforming to the world, maybe that's a greater sin than no prescribing at all? They are rare cases, I admit, but they're out there.

There's a great line by I think it was Captain Kirk in one of the Star Trek flicks, I forget which. Some New Agey kind of influence had taken over the ship and even made Spock into almost a teary-eyed Liberal. "Be well, James!!" Something like that. And Captain Kirk tells the space alien dude something like this when they're all peer pressuring him into joining on with their false bliss: "But, I don't want you to take away my pain. I need my pain!!!! It's part of who I am."

What I'm getting at is the issue of great tragedy, drama, and suffering being exactly the part of great human stories in conquering all that. We would never have had Einstein if some homeopath, allopath, or these nit with head shrinks had determined the unruly boy needed to be dosed into compliance with the will of The Man and The Machine! Imagine if we had prescribed something like Belladonna for his constitutional "imaginations, hallucinations, fancies, acute vivid"!

Special and General Relativity?! Light being bent by gravity?! Electricity being produced by photoelectric effect?! Time being warped as we approach the speed of light?! Hah!! The hell you say, stupid little boy!!! You stinkin' heretic and kook!!! You don't pay enough attention in class!! You don't do your homework!!! You're lazy!! You have depression!!! Attention Deficit!!! You're hyperactive!!! You're delusional!!! You're insane!!! Guards!!! Take him away!!! Medicate him and throw him in the dungeons with Galileo until he complies with we sane and normal people!!!

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There are always two sides to these constitutional remedies (shadow side-or what you call the polar opposite).

The big factor is "does this person ask for help?"

Or does he not?

There is such a thing as only addressing the negatives or imbalances in a constitution,the positive aspects (everyone has) will stay.

Depending on the dominant miasmatic traits we all carry these negative symptoms make its mark.

Allopathic Ritalin is another subject altogether. This is used to suppress symptoms. Most often the symptoms were caused by toxins (iatrogenic vaccine induced).Allopathy does not address the body as a whole. Homeopathy does. When something so toxic (vaccines) invade the body causing alterations in the brain,its ridiculous to 'suppress' this. A practicioner needs to find the maintaining causefactor and address this via detox and long term const. rem.

you may feel gratefull that homeopathy survived the attempts of allopaths to destroy it- MARK TWAIN

I like and understand your post, DocQuack. As a matter of fact, I hope you don't mind me copying what you wrote so that I may send it off to my daughter. Her son's school is demanding to place him on Prozac at 7 years old.

I say far be it. Let the child be and act like a 7 year old even if it's with much anxiety. Allow his brain and mental capacity to blossom. You're correct , if we keep on treating the over exorbitant minds, we will not have any more Einsteins left.

Named 1997 Scientist of the Yearby the International Association for New Science.

Dr. Patrick Flanagan was a child prodigy with an intense interest in electronics, biochemistry and physics. As an avid inventor, even at the age of 12, Patrick Flanagan shook up the Pentagon with his guided missile and atomic bomb detector. At 14 he developed the Neurophoneâ„˘, an electronic device that transmits sound from the skin directly to the brain, through the nervous system, not the bones or ears. And if you read about his childhood, he claimed he floated in the air.

Towards a New Alchemy - The story about the achievements of Dr. Patrick Flanagan. "The present state of technology will open the next with incredible possibilities: electronic telepathy, microcluster technology, computer to human communications, new breakthroughs in electromedicine, the discovery of subtle energy in geometries, holographic projection and speed learning, English communication with U. S. Navy dolphins, new science directions for the future, and more!"

But what G Tyler is saying, , Is this person asking for help? What type of help are they asking for? and Why? From that point, you should be to make your determination.

Just finished some quick review of this Dr. Flanagan, Ruby. Thanks! Now I don't feel so far off the deep end. Very interesting fellow and life work. I am almost tempted to mock some of it as quackery along with those Quack Watch guys bashing him, but that sure would be living in a glass house and tossing stones! I am tempted to cringe at all this Pyramid Power and Mystical Crystal stuff, but last time I mocked "kook talk" I wound up here as a homeopathic believer. Now I bang away mindlessly at water vials to produce medicine. I blow out candles with my Chi. I make all sorts of drivel on homeopathic ice crystals and possible highly energetic particle emission under succussion! I explore things like pyroelectric crystals for electric power generation and miniature neutron generators, and I explore quack "over-unity" gizmos. Hmmmm.....That's all I'll say, for now. Just hmmmmm. More of an Auuuuuummmmmm ooooooohmmmm Iiiiiiiimmmmmm gooooonnnnnnne toooooo quackadooooooooo these days!! Auuuuuuummmmmm!! Auummmmmmmm!!! Auuummmmmmmm!!! Feel the vibes, man. Wooo hooo!! Next thing you know I'll be growing my hair long, wearing sandals, and making journeys to Tibet and India to hang around with monks and yogis, and they'll call me "enlightened" when the reality of it is that I am proudly a kook.

In kookery tenebris lux! Fidelis ad kookery!!

MolecularDyne.com
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Gina, I am almost on the verge of being a "cry for help". Have you figured out my likely constitutional remedy yet? Not sure I wanna know. I'm partial to Crapus Chronicus Maelificus Kookicus in 12C liquid, shaken not stirred, with one green olive atop!!

MolecularDyne.com
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I ask because your report is filled with surface tension focus
while myself and others have noticed a very slight surface tension difference
between regular water and homeopathic water. Never measured it, but just felt
it while stirring remedies with a spoon in dilution glasses. Even the ringing
sound of the spoon against glass sounds a little different to my ears. So
subtle it is, however, that it is almost something you'd pass by. Makes me
wonder about things like velocity of sound travel in homeopathic water vs.
regular water; That relation to cavitation; Temperature; Many things.

I have heard before of surface tension and other water
property differences to water versus homeopathic water, but it is not an area I
have bothered to experiment in at this point. I am going to take a quick
look for any cold tea diffusion rate differences right now, however.

NOTE TO THE HOMEOPATHIC AUDIENCE:
In Dr. Flanagan's Wetter Water Report, he notes that his crystal
solution addition to water impacts surface tension; That this effect can be
observed through the difference in bubbles (cavitatation formation) and in the
ability to "brew" tea within cold water. That increased diffusion rate in his
water would tend to imply not just surface tension reduction, but increased
cavitation (he reports) and that resultant increase in local temperature due to
pressure variances and internal frictions. This leads to many questions and
possibilities, and I suspect that "cold brewed tea" of his is actually pretty
darn hot and even superheated at the very microscopic level. Overlaps nicely as
a different perspective on homepathic water and cavitation, me thinks. Also,
we can note from the Griggs Hydrosonic Pump engineering data that "dirty water"
-- water tainted by dust or his crystals -- tends to cavitate more due to the
bubbles starting their breaks from laminar flow around such
microscopic debris.

This letter I'll also be posting openly to the www.Hpathy.com threads:

Science & Homeopathy: Scientific Research Bibliography
(You'll need to join Hpathy.com and register with the forum
in order to access this thread at this time. Contact Dr. Bhatia).

Your work and products seem to me a very interesting
innovation for the Naturopathy-minded practitioners on Hpathy, and also deeply
informative to us regarding the mysterious nature of the water we work with in
our craft. Therefore, if not already a member, I would encourage you to join
the Hpathy forums. Maybe submit some of your work to Dr. Bhatia for publication
there? It should certainly get many more page views of your website and product
while I suspect you have interesting things to teach homeopaths regarding
water!

I hope you enjoy the recent post I made under "More
Discoveries on Water and Remedies" and would love to correspond with you on
those matters sometime. That and A Simple Mathematical Physics View to Homeopathy vs.
Allopathy is about the best I can come up with to date. As for
the Vital Force/ Qi/ Chi, etc...the best way I can unify it in my own head with
science is partly explained in last night's ramblings on this
thread:

Patrick Flanagan, PhD, is a perfect example of extraordinary genius. In addition to achieving one of the highest honors - the Scientist of the Year award in 1997 - the rest of Flanagan's life reads like a fabulous fable. Except that its all true.

LIFE magazine was so smitten with this man's genius that it published a separate special edition featuring Flanagan and his inventions. He was, and still is, an enigma to the world, a child prodigy who astounded the military with his atomic bomb and missile detector - a device he built at the age of twelve!

His life makes a very good read. So much so, that I convinced him to agree to an interview - in person. It took me weeks to find this man, only to discover that he lives in the mountains a mere few miles from me!

I was privileged to learn a few things about him that are not widely known. Stick with me here, and you'll find that some of his discoveries in the areas of health and healing - including life extension - may be of great benefit to you. At the very least, his story will be interesting reading.

Alien Coercion

Many of you will remember the book Pyramid Power, a run-away best seller in the 70's, written by Patrick Flanagan, PhD. His research and insights into the power of the pyramid generated an enduring avalanche of pyramid-mania: from televised documentaries to strange pyramid shaped hats - a fascination that lasted for years throughout the world and continues to this very day.

What was it like to grow up as a genius with extraordinary gifts and talents? What was it like to be a different kind of kid? Patrick remarked that it was difficult. His mother used to say, â€śPatrick, don't be a genius. Be normal.â€ť But Patrick didn't know what normal was. He was a weird kid and he knew it.

How did the inspiration for his inventions come about? It's interesting that Patrick is not able to explain how it happens. Even though it seems his inventions are "given" to him, he feels that he really has to work hard for them.

When he was eight, he began having a recurring nightmare each night. It was a menacing thing. He dreamed of being an adult pilot, flying over the Pacific Ocean in a single engine airplane. The engine would die and he would be forced to land on a tiny island. A UFO would come along and land. Out of the craft emerged beings who looked like humans; although, they were taller, extraordinarily beautiful, and had blonde hair.

They had a device that looked like a lap top computer along with a helmet that had shiny, silver-like electrodes all over on the inside. This â€śhelmetâ€ť was put on his head, and when he asked what they were doing they said, â€śWeâ€™re measuring your knowledge and intelligence. If you don't match up to our standards, weâ€™re going to destroy you and all the people on earth.â€ť

Talk about pressure! If that happened to you at the age of eight, what would you do?

Consequently, Patrick began reading everything he could get his hands on. As long as he continued to read, the nightmares would stay away. But, if he stopped reading and began playing like the other kids, the nightmares would start up again.

He established a habit of reading, and by the time he was fourteen he could read 14,500 words per minute with 95% comprehension. He literally devoured ten to twelve books a day. His interest was mainly physics, electronics, chemistry and abnormal psychology.

He was only eleven when he invented the guided missile and atomic bomb detector, and only twelve when he entered the device in his first Science Fair in Houston, Texas. When Patrick won over the entire science fair in Houston for this device, he captured the attention of the US military.

He was in the study hall in school, when the principal spoke over the loud speaker and said, â€śWill Patrick Flanagan please come to my office? The Pentagon is on the telephone.â€ť

In the principalâ€™s office, a five-star general questioned Patrick about the atom bomb and missile detector and asked if he could send a group of people from Wright Paterson Air Force Base to look at it. Patrick said yes, and so he did.

After he showed them his device, they took it. Later, he received a letter stating that they had placed the device in a satellite. When he asked them about the details, he was told that it was classified information. Apparently, his device was now top secret - even from him - and he never saw it again for many years.

The Neurophone

When Patrick was thirteen, he was inspired by a science fiction story written in 1911 by Hugo Gurnsbach, founder of the large electronics and science publishing house. The hero in the story was much like Nikola Tesla. He found it interesting that in his story, Gurnsbach had made startling predictions about television, radar, and intercontinental missiles, to name a few, long before they were actually invented.

In the story, the hero had a device with two electrodes that he put on his head, and when he went to sleep at night, the device would transmit all the news of the world into his brain. Since Patrick had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, he thought, Man, if I had one of those, it could really accelerate my learning.

Six months later, he developed one and called it the Neurophone: an ultra-sonic radio transmitter with two electrodes that goes onto your head. Any sound played into it bypasses normal hearing and transmits directly into the long-term memory center of the brain. Among other uses - like amplifying thoughts for telepathic projections - the Neurophone made it possible for severely hearing impaired people to hear. So he decided to apply for a patent.

In the mean time, he was invited to lecture at the Houston Amateur Radio Club with over 400 people in attendance. Afterward, a reporter for the Houston Post newspaper approached and told him that his granddaughter was profoundly deaf with spinal meningitis. He asked if she might be able to hear with his device. Patrick didn't have the answer, but he invited him to bring his granddaughter to his house - and so he did.

While the electrodes were on her head, she heard very clearly with it. She became very excited and started bouncing to the rhythms of the music.

The reporter was so impressed that he wrote an article about it and put it on the Associated Press wire service. The next day, Patrick was on the front page of over 300 major newspapers throughout the United States.

As a result, all kinds of offers began pouring in. He received over a million letters. He and his mother did the best they could in handling the correspondence. Pretty overwhelming for a thirteen year old!

Shortly afterward, LIFE Magazine interviewed him and published a special edition featuring his work. He then received invitations to be a featured guest on numerous television and radio shows to demonstrate his device.

Being a child prodigy and a genius wasn't the only thing unusual about Patrick. Since his school didn't have a gymnastics program, he became self-trained, and ended up wining the gymnastic championship of the southern United States by being able to perform an astounding feat with his body that no one else could do. A physiologist figured out that it took about 10,000 pounds of force to lift himself off the ground in the way that he did.

While still in his teens, he was offered the Gold Plate Award for the Neurophone, which was quite a prestigious honor back then. At the awards banquet, Patrick found myself among very powerful people, one of whom was Admiral Red Rayburn, who at the time was director in charge of the CIA. It was at this time that Rayburn and Patrick began their friendship.

Rayburn soon offered Patrick a college scholarship to any university in the world, in addition to a thirty-thousand dollar per year allowance, with the stipulation that upon graduating, Patrick would come to work for the CIA for five years. That was too much to conceive of for a teenager back then, so he turned down the offer - of which he is now glad that he did.

When Patrick tried to patent the Neurophone, the patent office would not grant the patent because they didn't believe it could work. Normally, patents come out in about two years after being filed. It took about nine years before they would grant the patent because they said there was no prior state of the art on this kind of thing. (How could there be a prior state of the art? Isn't an invention a new design? Hmmmmmm......)

So they closed the files and refused to give him a patent. By then, Patrick was in his early twenties. He and his patent lawyer flew to the patent office with the model of the device. The examiner who had closed the file wanted to test it, so he brought in a patent office employee - a man who had been deaf for 15 years. The examiner said that if this man can hear with the Neurophone, he would grant the patent.

The deaf man loved opera, so once they placed the electrodes on his head, they played a recording of one of the worldâ€™s greatest opera singers. The man heard with it and he cried. The patent examiner began crying, and then they all cried.

They reopened the files, which has never been done - before or since - in the history of the patent office, and finally issued his patent for the Neurophone.

Stan Posted:"There is a point where the underlying constitution, symptoms, and pathology of the individual becomes too much suffering and should be dosed. But, then again, suffering is also a part of life. Some sufferings -- such as the physical -- should be usually attacked by the physician..........................................."

The answer is in the:

Organon

Â§ 9

In the healthy condition of man, the spiritual vital force (autocracy), the dynamis that animates the material body (organism), rules with unbounded sway, and retains all the parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious, vital operation, as regards both sensations and functions, so that our indwelling, reason-gifted mind can freely employ this living, healthy instrument for

"the higher purpose of our existence."..............................................................................

you may feel gratefull that homeopathy survived the attempts of allopaths to destroy it- MARK TWAIN

Thanks for pointing that out. Funny how the short answer that best fits often takes 10 pages of introduction, circular questions, ponderings, and then someone points it right out as overlooked! When the sufferings begin to hinder one's living for the higher purpose of his existence as a healthy instrument I suppose would be the boundary line.

Can you tell us more about this prescribing for negatives versus positives?

MolecularDyne.com
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Thank you for the clips. Yes, this Dr. Flanagan is certainly someone we wouldn't want to have prescribed way into pacification and normalcy!

I'm not into UFO's. Pyramid Power, Crystal energy, Subtle energies, Zero Point Field, Over-Unity....these are kinda taboo that I don't reject but am still digesting. I will admit to secretly studying it, researching things there, and I am a fan of some really great scientists equally off the beaten path as this Dr. Flanagan. To the "normal" world they're kooks, but what I see are radicals on the cutting edge of stuff taking us into the next few centuries. In fact, in the water thread with the Griggs device I'm going to post a little riddle on that. Would be an interesting game to see if anyone can tell me what it is. I'd really like to talk with people who can about it. I suspect Dr. Roy and Dr. Flanagan might just be able to guess what it is.

...More later.

Stan

MolecularDyne.com
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Some mental traits such as bouts of anger that is beyong normal would be considered negative,this may cause domestic imbalances

Addiction can be a negative trait if focused on self destruction

OCD another negative trait that may debilitate a persons life.

All of these can be found in all of us Stan at one point or another,The question is "what do we do now" If one uses Allopathics its suppressed via toxic presciption meds that cause extreme adverse reactions,causing secondary iatrogenic symptoms and a life long journey of "just not getting well".Allopaths DO NOT FOLLOW "Herings Law of Cure" only palliation /suppression.

Homeopathy addresses all these 'negative' factors when a proper casetaking is done,the vital force releases from its tight bonds and the patient is balanced,free to be creative,enjoy life without restraints.

you may feel gratefull that homeopathy survived the attempts of allopaths to destroy it- MARK TWAIN

When the sufferings begin to hinder one's living for the higher purpose of his existence as a healthy instrument I suppose would be the boundary line.

Can you tell us more about this prescribing for negatives versus positives?

You have summed it up perfectly here. A symptom only becomes a symptom when it is limiting to a persons life. Excitement is a natural and enjoyable emotion, but in the remedy Coffea it becomes pathological. It is natural for a child to be excited about christmas, but if they are so excited that they have not slept for several nights, the excitement becomes pathological and requires treatment. Symptoms are limiting to a persons life, whereas natural character traits are not.

Furthermore, not every symptom requires treatment. Acute grief following a close bereavement is a limiting symptom. However grief is a natural process, and stepping in too quickly with a remedy can leave the person feeling guilty that they did not grieve properly for their loved one. It is only when the individual gets stuck in their grief, unable to move forward, or perhaps when their grief is too much for them to cope with, that a medicine should be prescribed.

Wanted to at least respond and thank you all for the insights. Much to ponder there in myself and some cases seen. Something I will probably always think about in prescribing.

But, for the moment, I must prescribe myself some Allopathy! That of no more looking at a computer screen for today. Been doing so since 0730. Now it is 2330. Had a couple hours deviation, but I find these strange light boxes have a way of sapping the mind, body, and soul. I am computerified out.

MolecularDyne.com
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Doc Quack - Very interesting opening post, partly because it is something I have often wondered. For example, take an aggressive animal - an 'owner' might want to calm it down, but that aggression may be what keeps it alive in the outside world - say an outdoor cat.Of course many people don't LIKE being kookie, while some glory in it - maybe the difference is what is emphasised to the homeopath - if you don't mind being a bit off-the-wall, since it's actually interesting, you are unlikely to complain about it. While, if it really, really bothers you not to be a Stepford wife... you get my drift.Anyway - it's good to read stuff like this.

On the other hand, the four classifications of the ancient naturalists form a holistic psycho-physical view of constitutional types, their symptomatology, ...www.hpathy.com/philosophy/little-kent-hahnemann.asp - Similar pages

The Homeopathic Treatment of Children: Pediatric Constitutional Types, by Paul Herscu, ND, DHANP (This is a great book that discusses the nine leading ...www.hpathy.com/papersnew/ullman-learn-homeopathy.asp - Similar pages

Jul 22, 2007 ... Von Grouvgol promoted these constitutional types in homeopathy with a broad remedy classification, which in my opinion, is very synthetic. ...www.hpathy.com/philosophy/bhatia-Aphorism5-1.asp - Similar pages

Jul 14, 2008 ... In Hahnemannâ€™s system, the natural temperament and constitution was ... each polychrest there are temperament types and their combinations. ...www.hpathy.com/bookreviews/humranwala-temprament-types.asp - Similar pages

Feb 13, 2006 ... Kent is also known for developing "pictures" of constitutional types of patients . A well-known example would be his description of Sulphur ...www.hpathy.com/biography/james-tyler-kent.asp - Similar pages

Then too, each constitutional type of cat, will have different strengths and organ susceptibilities and the FIP illness takes advantage of such ...www.hpathy.com/veterinary/Villiers-feline-infectious-peritonitis.asp - Similar pages

Understanding Aphorism Five - Part II

Useful to the physician in assisting him to cure are the particulars of the most probable exciting cause of the acute disease, as also the most significant points in the whole history of the chronic disease, to enable him to discover its fundamental cause, which is generally due to a chronic miasm. In these investigations, the ascertainable physical constitution of the patient (especially when the disease is chronic), his moral and intellectual character, his occupation, mode of living and habits, his social and domestic relations, his age, sexual function, etc., are to be taken into consideration.

OR

It will help the physician to bring about a cure if he can find out the data of the most probable occasion of an acute disease, and the most significant history of a protracted wasting sickness, enabling him to find out its fundamental cause. The fundamental cause of a protracted wasting sickness mostly rests upon a chronic miasm. In these investigations, the physician should take into account the patient's:

discernible body constitution (especially in case of a protracted disease),

In our last lecture, we have already discussed the exciting cause of an acute disease and the fundamental cause of a chronic disease. But our work of finding the simillimum is not easy and although the causative factors play a decisive role in finding the simillimum, we still have to take into consideration a variety of other factors to make a correct remedy choice and to lead the patient to cure. In addition to the causative factor, we can use many other variables, like the appearance of a person, his mental constitution, his work or profession, lifestyle, habits, relationships, gender, sexual functions, age etc.

Let us explore some of these factors in more detail. This will help us appreciate their importance in finding the simillimum.

1. Physical Constitution:

You must have read about the constitutions associated with many of our remedies - Sulphur is tall, thin and stooped shouldered; Calcarea is fat, fair and flabby; Sepia is thin, scrawny and flat-chested; Phosphorus is tall, lean with sharp features; Graphites is stout in appearance; Baryta is short and so on.

Ever wondered where these physical constitutions come from? There are two primary sources- first, during a proving, a medicine is seen to affect a particular constitution more than the others. Secondly, after prescribing a particular remedy to dozens (probably hundreds) of people it is seen that the people who are benefited by this remedy often have some common physical traits. Such traits, when confirmed repeatedly, find their way in our materia medicas as 'physical constitution'.

Physical constitutions are not definite. That means, not every Calcarea case is going to be fat, fair and flabby. I have prescribed it to too many thin and dark people with success to take it as a definite. Similarly not every Phosphorus is going to be tall and not every Baryta is going to be dwarfish. BUT the constitutional picture is still very handy. Why? Because the physical structure is usually inherited ...inherited along with many other mental traits and susceptibilities. So when a person with a particular constitution comes in front of you, you are often able judge what to expect from this case. It may not prove correct every time but it does help us narrow down our choice of remedies. It is also a very useful tool in situations where a homeopath needs to prescribe a remedy but is unable to communicate effectively due to language or religion barriers.

A note of caution: the physical constitution is never to be used in isolation to prescribe a remedy. DO NOT use it blindly. It can help in remedy selection when used judiciously and along with the 'complete' case, but if used in isolation, the results will be few and far in between.

Another note of caution: in some books of materia medica, you will find constitutions classified as hydrogenoid, nitrogenoid, carbo-oxygenoid, phlegmatic, leuco-phlegmatic etc. In my personal opinion, you should not use this data in relation to our remedy pictures. This classification is very hypothetical and is actually derived from a nearly 2000 year old classification given by hippocrates. Von Grouvgol promoted these constitutional types in homeopathy with a broad remedy classification, which in my opinion, is very synthetic.

2. Mental and Emotional Constitution

Now let us move on to the mental and emotional constitution of a person. Hahnemann was a visionary in that he was probably among the first few people who thought of using our mental and emotional framework as an aid to treatment. But before we move further, it is necessary to differentiate between mental symptoms and mental characteristics.

Mental and Emotional Symptoms: These are changes in our mental and emotional functions as a result of sickness, the disease process. For e.g., 'Anxiety after witnessing an accident'. Here 'the shock' of witnessing an accident is an 'exciting cause' and the anxiety is the symptom. Similarly, 'depression due to grief'. Here the 'grief' is the exciting cause and the 'depression' is a symptom.

Mental and Emotional Characteristics: These are the mental and emotional 'traits' that people are born with or sometimes acquire due to life experiences. In most case the traits are inherited. For e.g. 'optimism' and 'pessimism' are often mental attitudes that people are born with. Similarly some people are 'anxious' right from birth. They worry about everything. The anxiety is then not a mental symptom (unless associated with some disease), it is a mental characteristic. Some people are emotionally expressive, some are not; some people think before they act and there are others who act before they think. 'Fear' if associated with some cause is a symptom but there is no dearth of people who are 'fearful' in general. Here the 'fearfulness' becomes a 'trait' - something that characterizes that person, not just his/her disease process.

The first homeopathic idiom that we were taught in our college was - 'treat the person, not the disease'. That we were never taught, HOW to treat the 'person', is an entirely different matter! Anyway, what this basically means is that we have to study the person along with his disease process. Many people misunderstand this idiom and start believing that we do not need to bother about the 'disease'. But that is entirely wrong. Ultimately it is the 'disease-process' that you are trying to cure. Homeopathy was never meant to treat the fundamental human traits in isolation.

Mental symptoms and mental characteristics are both useful in selecting the remedy. But the symptoms come first. A remedy that covers the 'traits' but not the 'symptoms' is not the ideal simillimum. Just like physical constitutions, the knowledge about traits is not as objective as proving data and you should always study the mental 'constitution' with a pinch of salt. because not every Arsenic is 'anxious', not every Tarentula 'loves music', not every Carcinosin is 'artistic', not every Sulphur is a 'philosopher'. The mental constitutions fit in a large number of cases but NOT ALWAYS. So always be open-minded and flexible at the time of remedy selection. DO NOT make these mental and emotional constitutions a hard and fast rule for remedy selection. Just like physical constitution, mental and emotional characteristics should also be used to select the best remedy from among the group of remedies that cover the 'symptoms' of the case well. They should not be used in isolation to prescribe, because if you do so, you will not be doing 'homeopathy'.

I have another thing to say here. In the last few decades, there has been an increasing 'trend' to prescribe on the basis of mental and emotional constitution. This movement to understand the 'essence' of a remedy started with the work of Vithoulkas and Masi and was carried forward by the likes of Sankaran, Mangialavori and Scholten. There is nothing wrong in understanding the 'person' BUT the problem started when people in some schools started to ignore the physical generals, the disease symptoms and the pathology and started prescribing only on the constitutional essence of the patient. This trend still continues and is actually on the rise. Such one sided prescriptions and the schools that teach such methods, should be condemned in the strongest possible words.

3. Occupation

Now let us move to occupation, another important factor that needs to be considered while evaluating a person for chronic diseases. In my last lecture, I had discussed the diseases, whose 'fundamental cause' is not a chronic miasm. These diseases are called occupational diseases. These days an increasing number of chronic conditions arise due to the occupation or from stress associated with the work. Whenever you get a patient, do ask about his occupation, whether he likes his work or not, what is the environment in his office or if there are any issues associated with the work-place etc.

There are some diseases that you can directly relate to the occupation. For e.g., Asthma in people working in mines, Sinusitis in people working in damp environments like dairies, skin infections and dermatitis in people working in chemical and dyeing industries, cervical spondylitis in people working on computers for long hours, indigestion in people with sedentary work. In such cases your remedy will not be able to cure the patient unless and until the causative and maintaining factor is removed.

In other cases the 'work' by itself does not cause any disease but the work-environment may be causing problems. There may be issues related to abuse, injustice, frustration, jealousy etc that arise from issues related to the work place. Such issues need to be brought into the open during the case taking and addressed with counseling and suitable homeopathic remedy.

4. Lifestyle and Habits

These days our lifestyle and habits are increasingly becoming a source of increased susceptibility to diseases. Unhealthy diet, junk and processed food, pollution, watching TV for long hours, lack of physical exercise, late nights, irregular sleep, too much exposure to pornography - all tend to make us more susceptible to disease processes by decreasing our vitality. These factors may not be easily related with the current condition of a patient but in a large percentage of cases you will find that the person himself is responsible for his own undoing.

In the fourth aphorism, we discussed that a physician is not just supposed to treat the sick. His work also includes prevention of disease and maintenance of health. You need to work with your patients to ensure that they develop a healthy life-style. Otherwise it is often difficult to cure - you can't clap with one hand! The patient needs to work on his own wellbeing too. And as a physician, it is your duty to guide him in the right direction.

5. Social and Domestic Relations

The social and personal relations of a person can also give us a cue to his predispositions, changes in his mental and emotional health and his/her mental characteristics. The way people behave with their wifes/husbands, children, parents, friends, colleagues, neighbors and strangers walking on the road, can give you sufficient information about a persons likes, dislikes, preferences and overall mental traits. When the patient is known to you, you will be able to observe the behavior yourself, in other cases you may need to ask the patient as well as the attendants about the person's behavior and relationship with others. Let me give you some examples: the Flouric-acid patient is known to be a gentleman outside the home but a 'baddy' inside; the Lachesis patient may feel envious of others easily; the Natrum-sulph and Pulsatilla patients may be easily dominated in their relations, whereas Platina may try to be the center of every thing in a relationship; the Causticum patient may try to help an injured person or an old man whereas the Staphysagria patient may have an 'who cares' attitude in such situations. The study of relationships helps us decipher the mental traits that we have discussed above and is hence an important part of case taking.

6. Age

Age is again an important factor and can help us narrow down our choice of remedies. During our provings, it was found that some remedies work better in some age groups. For instance Barytas' seem to work well at the two ends of the age-spectrum - very young and old; Chamomilla, Cina, Podophyllum, Antim-crud are known to cover the problems of children well; Calcareas are often indicated in adolescence; Lachesis often finds indications at menopausal age and so on. These indications of age are not definite. Ultimately, the remedy selection is governed by symptom similarity. But we have to value the experience that homeopaths have gathered in these last 200 years and if a remedy is known to work well in a particular age group, there is no harm in keeping it in mind when selecting the remedy for the patient.

7. Sexual Functions

Another very important aspect of human life is - sex. 'Sex' is one of the most searched words on the internet. Our biological drive to reproduce is so strong that we don't need to read someone else's opinion to understand the importance or our sexual functions. In modern society, as the hold of religion has weekened and the desire for 'freedom' has increased, there has been a marked change in human sexual-social behavior. Living-in, one-night stands, casual sex, promiscuity etc have become so common that we do not even raise an eyebrow when we hear about them. Sex has come out of the sanctity of married relations.

But all this has led to ever increasing sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, Hepatitis etc. The 'sexual freedom' has also led to relationship problems for many. With increasing sexual desires, sexual frustrations have also increased manifold - resulting in a variety of problems varying from impotence to psychological disorders. Unplanned pregnancies, abortions and side-effects of oral contraceptive drugs is also part of the 'trade-off' for sexual freedom.

So whenever you take a chronic case, do take the sexual history of the patient wherever it appears relevant. In both males and females the age of attainment of puberty and history masturbation should be enquired into. In adults enquiry should be made about promiscuity, sexual diseases, menses and any issues associated with sexual functions. But do remember that you need a lot of tact to gather such information and the information should not be sought bluntly or when not relevant. The patient should be made to understand the importance of these details, if he/she is hesitant in answering your queries. It is still not very easy to gather this information in the eastern world but efforts should be made to find as much relevant information as is possible.

There is no mathematical formula for good case-taking. You have to individualize your case-taking according to the patient in front of you. Hahnemann was way ahead of his times in ascertaining the totality of the case. There is probably no literature parallel to The Organon that lists the need for such detailed evaluation of a patient. Chronic diseases arise from a variety of causes and you have to do a detailed assessment to find out what it was that deranged the vitality of the person to such extent as to cause such chronic disease. The work is not easy but the rewards compensate amply for the hard-work.

you may feel gratefull that homeopathy survived the attempts of allopaths to destroy it- MARK TWAIN

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